Chap. XVII.l LAW OF BATTLE. 239 



opponent ; but the Italian buffalo is said never to use his 

 horns, he gives a tremendous blow with his convex fore- 

 head, and then tramples on his fallen enemy with his 

 knees — an instinct which the common bull does not pos- 

 sess." Hence a dog who pins a buffalo by the nose is im- 

 mediately crushed. We must, however, remember that 

 the Italian buffalo has long been domesticated, and it is 

 by no means certain that the wild parent-form had simi- 

 larly shaped horns. Mr, Bartlett informs me that when 

 a female Cape buffalo {Buhalus Gaffer) was turned into an 

 enclosure with a bull of the same species, she attacked 

 him, and he in return pushed her about with great vio- 

 lence. But it was manifest to Mr. Bartlett that had not 

 the bull shown dignified forbearance, he could easily have 

 killed her by a single lateral thrust with his immense 

 horns. The giraffe uses his sl)ort hair-covered horns, 

 which are rather longer in the male than in the female, in 

 a curious manner ; for with his long neck he swings his 

 head to either side, almost upside down, with such force, 

 that I have seen a hard plank deeply indented by a single 

 blow. 



"With antelopes it is sometimes difficult to imagine 

 how they can possibly use their curiously-shaped horns ; 

 thus the spring-boc {Ant. euehore) has rather short up- 

 right horns, with the sharp points bent inward almost at 

 a right angle, so as to face each other ; Mr, Bartlett does 

 not know how they are used, but suggests that they 

 would inflict a fearful wound down each side of the face 

 of an antagonist. The slightly-curved horns of the Oryx 

 leucoryx (Fig. 61) are directed backward, and are of such 

 length that their points reach beyond the middle of tlie 

 back, ov^r which they stand in an almost parallel line. 

 Thus they seem singularly ill-fitted for fighting ; but Mr, 



" M. E. M. Bailly, " Sur I'usage des Cornes," etc., ' Annal. des Sc. 

 Nat.' torn. '\. 1824, p. 369. 



